My first column for Home School Enrichment magazine has been selected as the cover story for the July/August 2010. Below I’ve copied in the original text I submitted to the magazine. The final published version benefits from the editing talents of Jonathan Lewis, so I recommend you get the print version or check out the Digital Edition when it becomes available.

Raising Entrepreneurs by Russ McGuire

God has blessed me with a very successful business career. I currently enjoy serving as an executive in one of the 100 largest corporations in the country. However, God has given me an entrepreneur’s heart, and it is through starting small businesses that He has given me real insight into the fundamental factors required of any business to be successful. More importantly, in small businesses we have the opportunity to clearly and freely exercise obedience to God’s revealed will for our lives as stewards of all that He has given us.

Let me be clear. In none of my business ventures have I been perfectly successful – not in the terms by which the world measures success, and certainly not in perfect obedience to God – like you, I’m a sinner. However, God disciplines us for our good, as Hebrews 12 teaches us. “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. … he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:7, 10, 11 ESV)

God recognizes our growth by giving us greater opportunities as Jesus taught in the Parable of the Ten Minas. “Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’ … The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’” (Luke 19:13,16,17 ESV)

Therefore, it has been important to me that my son learn how to be successful as a Christian businessman, and I have partnered with other homeschooling parents to teach entrepreneurship to our children.

Our initial effort was to take a year to study “Seven Disciplines of Biblical Business Success.” In this class, we studied seven disciplines of business: strategy, innovation, marketing, serving customers, operations, finance, and leadership. For each, we also studied a Biblical discipline required for success: humility, creativity, honesty, servanthood, excellence, stewardship, strength, and compassion. Along the way, we formed teams and each team developed a business plan for an entrepreneurial idea. We applied the lessons in writing the business plans. At the end of the class, each team presented their business plans.

Immediately following completion of the class, my son, Kevin, and I took our business plan for an Online Social Network for Christian Homeschooling Families and began to lay the foundation for executing the plan. This past Fall, we recruited two other homeschool students to participate as interns helping run the business and we launched the initial version of Hschooler.net. Brian is responsible for product development, Austin manages marketing, and Kevin manages revenue generation.

The business is beginning to grow. Although it is not yet profitable in monetary terms, the rewards in terms of our sons learning how to run a business, and more importantly, how to apply their Christian faith in real life actions and decisions are immeasurable.

Over the next several issues of Home School Enrichment, I hope to share with you the lessons that we’ve been learning and how you may be able to teach your children how to become Godly entrepreneurs.

Basic Principles

For starters, we need to understand the concepts of work, business, and success.

Many Christians wrongly view work as a curse of the Fall, but in reality, work is a blessing. It was enjoyed by Adam and Eve in Eden. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. … Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him’” (Genesis 2:15, 18 ESV). We will also enjoy work for all eternity. “They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. … and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands” (Isaiah 65:21-22 ESV).

Although it is true that work has become a burden due to the Fall (Genesis 3:17-19), God calls each of us to our vocation (e.g. 1 Corinthians 1:1). Gene Edward Veith, Jr. in God At Work (Crossway Books, 2002) makes the point that “Though human beings tend to be oblivious to the spiritual significance of the ordinary things they do, and though their work is tainted by sin, the Christian, walking by faith and resting in Christ, can live and work as a channel for the gifts of God. … The whole purpose of every vocation is to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ (Matthew 22:39).”

Wikipedia defines a business this way: “In economics, a business (also called firm or enterprise) is a legally recognized organizational entity existing within an economically free country designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers.” Or, building off of the above discussion of work and vocation, a business is an organized entity that is a channel for the gifts of God (including skills, talents, and resources) to be applied in meeting the needs of the people He has created in His image.

Does God desire for us to have success in business? I believe He does. Jesus often used examples of successful businessmen as positive parables teaching about God’s Kingdom and our relationship with God. (e.g. The Parable of the Faithful Servant in Luke 12, The Parable of the Shrewd Manager in Luke 16, The Parable of the Ten Minas in Luke 19, The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20, and The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25). Joshua 1:8 is not specifically about business, but it speaks of God’s desire for us to have success in what He has called us to: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (ESV) In Proverbs 3, Solomon teaches his son to look to God’s commandments, strength, and discipline and not lean on his own understanding “So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.” (Proverbs 3:4 ESV)

As these passages imply, success is measured differently by the world and by Godly measures. Business success is measured by the world in terms of revenue growth, market share, and profits.

However, Biblical business success starts with trusting in God and being obedient to His commands.

In Roadmap to Success (Bridge-Logos, 2005), Steve Marr wrote “God wants you to succeed. He has a plan for your life, a plan for good and not for evil. He desires that you will seek His will, understand His timing, pursue your passion, establish a clear and unwavering mission, and stay strong in His strength to accomplish all that He has ordained for your life.”

Dennis Peacocke, in Doing Business God’s Way (REBUILD, 1995) observed “The way God runs His Creation qualifies Him as the most prominent and productive businessman of all. When Christian business professionals see this reality and begin to operate their businesses the way God does His, then it will radically change them, what we call Christianity, and the entire world in the process.”

In How to Prosper in Business Without Sacrificing Integrity (Cross Training Publishing, 2002), Rick Boxx asks “God has a plan for your business. God’s plan is a plan designed to prosper you without sacrificing integrity. Wouldn’t it be much easier to work with God towards the goals that He has in mind, rather than to work against God?”

And Myron Rush wrote in Management: A Biblical Approach (Victor Books, 1983) “If the Christian enterprise is to accomplish the tasks for which God has raised it up, its leadership must apply the principles of management outlined in God’s Word instead of those promoted and practiced by the secular world. That means we must direct our attention to God’s Word for answers concerning how His work is to be managed.”

As these men observe and Proverbs 3:4 states, it is not wrong to seek success in the sight of both God and man. Therefore, in my own business endeavors, and as I teach my son about business success, my first priority must be on faithfulness to God, but within that faithfulness is great liberty to seek market success creating value for my customers and wealth within my business. Proverbs 13:22a says “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.” I pray the inheritance I leave will be one of faith, wisdom, and wealth.